A few facts about sharks

There are more than 350 different kinds of sharks.

You are 1,000 times more likely to drown in the sea than you are to be bitten by a shark.

Sharks are more related to fishes like the stingray than they do with the barracuda.

Most sharks as we know them today developed about 64 million years ago during the age of the dinosaurs.

A shark can hear a fish in the water from more than a mile away.

Sharks’ wounds heal quickly and they rarely get tumors.

The Dermal denticles that covers Shark skin is so tough and hard that before the invention of sandpaper, shark skin was used to polish wood.

Shark teeth have been used as weapons and tools for many centuries.

On some islands, villagers believed that sharks were spirits of their ancestors.

Eating Shark flesh is forbidden in both the Solomon and Fiji islands.

About 100 people in the world are bitten by sharks each year. Of these, five to ten die mainly from blood loss.

The chance of being killed by a shark is one in 300 million. The chance of being killed by airplane parts falling from the sky is one in 10 million.

Great White Sharks are the largest predatory fish in the sea.

Great White Shark meat is not recommended for human consumption because it has very high mercury levels.

Great White Sharks have been sighted along the coasts of all continents except Antarctica.

The Great White Shark have an enormous liver that can weigh up to 24 percent of its entire weight.

A Great White Shark may use and lose more than one thousand teeth in its life time.

The Great White Shark is not all white. The shark’s back may be dark blue, gray, brown or black.

Great Whites often have scratches and scars on their snouts which resulted from their prey fighting back.

Scientists estimate that after a big meal, a Great White Shark can last up to three months before needing another one.

The biggest Great White Shark ever caught was off Prince Edward Island in 1993. It was 20 feet long.

In one year, a single Great White consumes about 11 tons of food.

Great White Sharks breed late in life. They do not start breeding until they’re 3.5 - 4 metres in lenth.

More than 70 percent of victims of Great White Shark Attacks survive because the shark realizes it has made a mistake and doesn’t finish off the prey.

Most sharks live near the surface because most of their prey live near the surface.

The bull shark can live in freshwater rivers and lakes.

No one has ever seen a Great White Shark give birth.

A shark can go without eating for a long time because it is able to store nutrients, much like a camel.

Unlike many other creatures, a shark do not have a layer of fat below its skin.

The Whale Shark is the world’s largest fish.

Newborn sharks are called pups.

Most baby sharks that are born live come out of their mother’s body tail first, although a few species emerge headfirst.

When its time to mate, female sharks release pheromones into the water to help male sharks find them.

Shark mothers do not feed their babies. They must survive on their own.

Basking sharks and whale sharks swim with their mouths wide open and filter their food from the water, such as shrimp and plankton.

One of the smallest sharks is the deepwater dogfish shark, Etmopterus perryi. It can be found in the Caribbean Sea and is less than 8 inches long.

Great White Sharks and their relatives like the Mako Shark and the Thresher shark, are warm blooded.

The largest shark, the whale shark is harmless and only eats plankton.

The teeth of a whale shark is no bigger than a match head.

Lantern sharks can glow in the dark.

Shark teeth were used on brass knuckles, with the teeth pointing outwards on the knuckle.

Most sharks are scared away by bubbles produced by scuba divers.

Most of the fish sold in British fish-and-chip shops are from spiny dogfish, one of the most abundant and heavily fished kinds of shark.

Shark oil is used in costly skin creams that are meant to prevent wrinkles and signs of aging.

Sharks kept in captivity have been known to grow 10 times their usual rate in the wild.

The teeth of a tiger shark are strong enough to crunch through a turtle’s bones and shell.

Boat Builders in parts of Africa rub the wood of a new craft with hammerhead oil in the belief that it will ensure fair winds and successful voyages.

Apart from people, a shark’s greatest enemy is another shark. Most sharks will happily eat any of their relatives, including their own species.

With Gray nurse sharks, the first pup (baby shark) to develop consumes its siblings as they hatch.

After mating, some female sharks can retain the male’s sperm in their bodies for use when she is ready to reproduce, even if that does not happen until next season.

Nurse sharks in captivity has been trained to push buttons with their snouts.

Game fisherman often release sharks after they catch them, but most sharks are so worn out from the lengthy struggle that they die anyway.

Up to 100 million sharks are killed by people every year.

Extracts from a shark’s gall bladder are used in the treatment of both eye cataracts and acne.

In 17th century France, shark brain was eaten to ease the pain of child birth. Today, the capacity of dried shark brain to relieve pain is widely recognized.

Like many mammals, including humans, sharks have a large heart with four separate chambers.

A shark attack on a human usually occurs in less than 6 feet 6 inches of calm water, and within a relatively short distance from shore.

The Megamouth shark is the rarest of the shark species. It was discovered in 1976.

Blue Sharks are the fastest sharks, reaching speeds of 43 mph, but only in short bursts. Their normal speed is 7 mph.

Experts believe that the whale shark may be capable of living up to 150 years, making it one of the longest-living creatures on Earth.

The smallest species in the shark kingdom is the dwarf shark, which averages at 4 inches long.

A shark’s skeleton is made of rubbery cartilage, like the tip of our noses.

The shark which is responsible for most shark bites is the nurse shark. Many divers can’t resist the urge to pull this shark’s tail since it looks completely harmless and they end up getting bit.

Swell sharks received their name from their ability to swallow water and swelling up themselves to appear larger in the eyes of predators.

Sand Tiger Sharks are most active at night.

Bull Sharks are often captured for display in aquariums, as this is one of the few species of shark that survives well in captivity.

Sharks do not chew their food, they swallow it whole. If its too big, they tear it into chunks. The jaws of bigger sharks are more powerful as the jaws of a lion.

The hammerhead shark has the best sense of smelling.

Sailors on a Navy ship were the first to discover the Megamouth shark.

The most numerous sharks found in the ocean is the Oceanic Whitetip and the Spiny Dogfish Shark.

Bull Sharks have been seen swimming up the Mississippi River.

Shark meat has an unpopular image as food, so fish markets and chefs change the name of shark meat to rock salmon, rock eel, huss or flake.

Port Jacson Sharks lay eggs that look like a corkscrew which sticks to rock crevices.

Baby sharks are born with sharp teeth and the ability hunt right from the start.

Sharks can see almost as well behind them as they can in front.

Pigs kill more people every year than sharks do.

Basking sharks suck in more than 10,000 quarts of plankton-filled water an hour.

The large amount of oil in the shark’s liver helps it float.

Sharks can sense weak electrical signals produced by the muscle movements of animals.

Shark skin was also used on the handles of swords so that warriors’ hands would not slip when they became sweaty.

Shark oil was once used to make vitamin-A pills. It was also used to light lamps in some places of the world.

Sharks were regarded as powerful beings by Pacific Islanders and were revered or worshiped by many island cultures.

Great Hammerhead sharks commonly prey on stingrays.

Half of the shark species averages less than 1 meter long.

The very first ancestors of sharks appeared 200 million years before dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Sharks cannot swim backward or hover in water like bony fishes.

A Thresher shark has the longest tail of any shark. Its tail is about as long as its body.

Mako sharks are among the fastest sharks in the sea, reaching up to speeds of 20 mph for a few moments.

During mating, a male shark would bite the female to arouse her interest.

Tiger sharks eat jellyfish and are not put off by the jellyfish’s stings.

Tiger sharks have been known to grab sea birds from the surface of the sea.

As the shark grows, its new teeth are larger than the ones they replace.

Some sharks produce different shaped teeth as they grow older.